More information : SK 526428, BROXTOWE. In 1964 a ditch section was found by Mr D March which had been revealed by civil engineering works on the north slope of the hill upon which the Broxtowe Estate stands. The Thoroton Society Archaeological Section excavated the end of this ditch and found that it had a vertical face on the north-east side and a sloping face on the south-west side. At the bottom there was a cleaning slot, the ditch being cut into Magnesian Limestone. The finds consisted of a few pieces of metalwork some pottery and fragments of lava quern. The date of this material fitted the period 50-75 A.D.
A Roman site on this hill top has been known since the building of the Broxtowe Estate, which started in 1937. Excavation followed along with observation of the house foundation trenches. The only notices of this work consist of short accounts by Mr Campion and Mr Hind. Any attempt at full publication was abandoned during the 1939-45 war, when some confusion arose as to the whereabouts of some of the material. Mr Campion and Mr Hind produced differing plans and explanations of the site: the former thought it a Roman fort, but
Mr Hind, working on the commonly held assumption at that time that the Fosse Way was a precise frontier to the Roman province at the period of the site, suggested that this frontier was sufficiently far to the south to preclude Broxtowe's origin being military, and that the site was therefore a native settlement. However, an examination of all the material suggests that it was almost certainly a fort. While the 1964 ditch section conforms in profile with Mr Hind's ditch, it does not fit in with either his plan or that of Mr Campion. It seems likely that the site was occupied by successive units of the Roman army, each modifying the existing arrangements to suit new requirements.
Accepting Mr Campion's and Mr Hind's plans, these ditch systems argue for more than one major period; but there is insufficient evidence to suggest that these could have been, or their precise relationships to each other. It is hoped that the report of the 1964 excavation, together with all surviving material from the pre-war excavations, will shortly be published in the Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire. (D F Mackreth) (1)
Broxtowe. Fort forming one of a line of forts lying at a uniform
distance from the Fosse Way, and positioned a uniform distance apart.
(2)
Broxtowe: probably a vexillation fortress. Broxtowe, Osmanthorpe and Newton-on-Trent are regularly disposed along the Trent Valley in a manner which is suggestive of a linked route, perhaps to keep a watch on the Brigantian border. (3)
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